John McCain addresses an audience Wednesday at a gymnasium at the Boys and Girls Club of the Truckee Meadows in Reno. / Marilyn Newton/Reno Gazette-Journal

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U.S. Sen. John McCain used his first general election campaign stop in Nevada to extend his weeklong attack against U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, engaging the Democrat in a tit-for-tat over the Iraq war before answering voter questions on energy, education and immigration.

Before a crowd of nearly 600 supporters in a gymnasium at the Boys and Girls Club of the Truckee Meadows, McCain accused Obama of exhibiting a "profound misunderstanding" of the situation in Iraq, before promising to bring a successful close to the war.

McCain also refused to back away from his support of the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository, despite saying in a speech Tuesday that an international repository might make the Nevada project unnecessary.

And he voiced confidence that Nevada Republicans would be able to work out the problems that brought an abrupt end to the party's state convention, after the supporters of Texas congressman Ron Paul captured control of the event last month.

Asked by a Paul supporter at the town hall about the possibility Nevada wouldn't seat a delegation at the national convention, McCain said he wouldn't let that happen.

"I understand we had some differences at the state convention," McCain said. "I know we can work it out. I would not let the state of Nevada not be represented at our national convention. We will get it worked out. I'm sure we will."

Nevada Republicans so far have been unable to reschedule the convention to elect national delegates.

McCain, an Arizona senator since 1987, stressed his Western roots, promising to compete hard in Nevada during the general election fight.

"There's a little bit of difference between Arizona and Nevada about water," he joked. "You've stolen our water. We want it back. We have so little water in Arizona the trees chase the dogs."

In his opening remarks, McCain attacked Obama, accusing him of failing to understand the Iraq war because he hasn't visited there in two years. McCain castigated Obama for rejecting his invitation this week to visit Iraq together.

"To say we have failed in Iraq and that we're not succeeding does not comport with the facts on the ground," McCain said. "So we have to show him the facts on the ground."

McCain argued that he "listened and learned" enough from visiting troops in Iraq to fight for President Bush's troop surge last year, a politically risky move given overwhelming public antipathy toward the war.

"I had sergeants coming up to me and captains and majors and they said 'Sen. McCain, we are going to lose this way. We've got to have more troops over here.'" McCain said. "I went back and I fought for the next strategy."

Earlier this week, Obama called McCain's Iraq invitation as a "political stunt," likening it to when President Bush landed a fighter jet on an air carrier to declare "mission accomplished" in Iraq.

Responding to McCain's Reno speech, Obama spokesman Bill Burton said McCain demonstrated a more fundamental misunderstanding by falling for President Bush's "flawed rationale" for going to war in the first place.

"On the day after the former White House press secretary conceded that the Bush administration used deception and propaganda to take us to war, it seems odd that Sen. McCain, who bought the flawed rationale for war so readily, would be lecturing others on their depth of understanding about Iraq," Burton said. "Senator McCain stubbornly insists on pursuing the failed Bush policy that continues to cost so much, while Senator Obama believes it's time to begin a deliberate, careful strategy to remove our troops and compel the Iraqis to take responsibility for their own future."

Although no recent polls have been conducted on Nevadans' attitudes toward the war in Iraq, surveys of Nevada voters last fall showed increasing opposition to the war. But McCain found himself before a mostly supportive crowd, heavy with military veterans.

Unlike his Colorado visit Tuesday, where protesters repeatedly heckled his support of the Iraq war, McCain was loudly applauded for his Iraq comments in Reno. Instead, the crowd erupted in boos and hisses when McCain mentioned Obama.

Many in the crowd mentioned McCain's support for the Iraq war as the reason they support him, despite his weakness on other issues important to conservatives such as immigration and the environment.

"With his military background, he would do good for the war in Iraq," said Barbara Corbin of Fernley. "I'm really hoping he's our next president."

But McCain found some resistance in the crowd when he began describing his stance on immigration. He was loudly booed for suggesting the United States strengthen its temporary worker program, an indication that emotions continue to run high among the Republican base on the issue.

"Just ask the agricultural sector here," he said as some in the crowd tried to shout him down. "We need people who can come to this country temporarily to fill a job that is vacant and then go back."

McCain also defended his support of the nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, calling it "straight talk" to confront a voters on an unpopular issue. He likened it to his opposition in Iowa of ethanol subsidies.

But he couched his support for Yucca Mountain in language similar to what President Bush used, saying he'll support it "once it goes through all of the processes it needs to go through."

"But I also support reprocessing," he said. "My friends, I'm going to straight talk. We need to do both. I hope we can find this international repository."

In a speech Tuesday on curbing nuclear proliferation, McCain said he would pursue an international repository as president to avoid opening Yucca Mountain.

McCain supporter Judy Crossman of Sun Valley said she hopes he changes his mind about Yucca Mountain.

"It's a very big deal for me," she said. "It's in our backyard."

In response to other questions, McCain said he supports school competition and would encourage more charter schools to open, opposes government-dictated health care solutions and will fight to end abortion.

McCain also defended his opposition to a bill sponsored by U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., that would significantly increase education benefits for veterans. McCain said he supports an alternative bill that would give better education benefits to veterans with longer military service.